Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005
Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005 |
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Bangalore
By Afshan Yasmeen
BANGALORE, JAN 25. A war of sorts is on between civil contractors and the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) officials. While the contractors' demand for increased rates for the 1,000-km road asphalting project is yet to be settled, over 500 private civil contractors are upset because the BMP has not cleared their bills of "over Rs. 100 crores" pending for the last 11 months. These contractors, executing the BMP's scheduled ward programme works as well as those that have spilt over from last year's budget, have now threatened to stop work if the bills are not cleared by February second week. The contractors, affiliated to the Karnataka State Contractors' Association (KSCA), had met the BMP Commissioner, K. Jothiramalingam, and other officials several times and explained to them that it would be difficult to continue the works without being paid. The association general secretary, D. Kempanna, told The Hindu on Tuesday that they had also written to the Mayor, R. Narayanaswamy; the ruling party leader, B.T. Sreenivasa Murthy; the Opposition leader, B.R. Nanjundappa; and the BJP leader, B.N. Mangala, asking them to ensure that their bills were cleared. He said the contractors also planned to appeal to each of the 100 corporators not to pressure them to take up works in their wards. "We will tell them that we cannot take up any new work till payments for completed works are made," he said. Mr. Kempanna said the last payment made was for February 2004. "This is the problem every year. Whenever we raise our voices, they just pay us one instalment. We will not allow such a temporary arrangement this time," he said. He said their demand for higher rates in the asphalting project was yet to be considered. "We are finding it difficult to pay our 50,000 skilled and unskilled workers. We want the BMP to clear at least 75 per cent of the pending bills," he said.
`No funds crunch'
When contacted, the BMP Additional Commissioner (Finance), P.K. Srihari, told The Hindu that the BMP did not lack funds. "We have been clearing the backlog based on the chronological order of the bills. This is a usual problem, and every year it is difficult to manage during lean months when there is a fluctuation in revenue receipts," he said. Admitting that the payment for February 2004 was made a few weeks ago, he said: "The bills will be cleared as and when we get money." He disputed the contractors' claim that bills of over Rs. 100 crores were pending and said the backlog was around Rs. 55 crores. "The delay in payments is only for small works, including maintenance and repairs of buildings, not for projects being carried out with loans from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation and the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation," he added.
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